The Last March of the Ents
by TriscuitTheFlyingSnkCracker
Summary: A little something I wrote at 2 a.m. It's the march on Isenguard, as viewed by the Valar. Hope you like the twist.


_**AN: **I was watching the march of the Ents on the Two Towers DVD, and I realized that this was probably the MOST moving scene I'd ever seen in a film, ever. So I sat myself down my trusty ol' Windows 95 and wrote this. I hope the 'middle english' style doesn't get in the way of the reader (But then again, that's how Tolkien wrote the Silmarillion.) _:-)

Enjoy.

**Ofthe Third Age of Middle Earth,** the age of men, the Valar took into account much, but intervened little, for they were forbidden by their mandate to interfere with the comings and goings of the race of men.

But they could watch.

And with this they were resigned to do. Even though that Sauron was of the Miar, they could not march in Arda and overthrow him as Morgoth. This was for the kingdom of men, and their final test, to see if they could survive.

But it seemed to many of the spirits that inhabited the undying lands, that the battle between the free races of the world and Sauron were often aided and thwarted by others, of who were not in the reckoning of the world until that time. Such were the Ents.

When the Valar wish to perceive the kingdom of Arda more clearly, they join Manwe Sulimo at the peak of Tennequetil, highest mountain under the stars. To there Yavanna was bid to come forth by Manwe from her gardens, for this concerned her.

She accepted the summons, and journeyed there, and at last she reached the summit of mountain, and stood in the halls of Manwe, leader of the Valar. There she met there, unlooked for and unheralded, her spouse, Aule.

"This is a strange meeting by chance, or fate perhaps. But speak, my love. Why do you come? Surely the lord of the Valar has no need for thy craft here?"

Aule then knew that his wife did not know the purpose of her travels, which was just as well, for he did not.

"My smithy has been deserted now, for I was bid to come here. Although I doubt for the teaching of the lore of metalwork." He smiled, and beckoned for his wife to follow him up into the silver chambers of Manwe.

Together they ascended to his throne, where they knelt before him, until he bid them to stand.

Manwe looked upon them. "The two most mighty in craft, save the Dark One, that Eru has made, stand before me. Mighty are we of the Valar, yet it fills me with grief that everything that we have done, every last note of the song that we sang before the beginning of the world, has been marred by Morgoth. See now, how your creations, long sundered, come together!" He swept his hand eastward, and a vision came before them all.

And Aule and Yavanna then looked out from Teniquetil, and looked upon the part of land that had known many names before it was called Isengard. Aule's heart was at first lightened at the construction of the tower of Orthanc, for a father whose son has built a thing to give to him thinks only of the act of giving, not the gift itself. 

But Yavanna's heart did not rise even the slightest at the sight of the tower, grand though it was. Her eyes instead looked in sadness and horror at the scarred stumps of trees in the wall circling the tower, and into the forest beyond.

Aule did not notice his wife's gaze, so intent was he at the craft of man before him, but he followed her eyes and stared in helpless outrage at the carrion of the forest that was beneath him.

"The crafts I have made... were not designed for this, Manwe Sulimo. Dost thou not know this? They why bring us here? We have seen dead trees before, painful as though it be."

"Look into the forest." commanded Manwe.

Then Yavanna looked in and she beheld a circle of trees in a clearing, and for one who did not know the secrets of the forest, it would seem that they did not move, or that their speech was merely the rustling of leaves or the creaking of branches. Yavanna hearkened to their words, and she learned the reason for the carnage outside of Isengard.

"Couronir has betrayed us to Sauron." She said simply to Aule.

Aule sighed. "I feared it would be so. For the will of Curonir was weakest, but of all my pupils his knowledge was the strongest. A dangerous combination. 

"

But tell me Manwe, of the two Kelvar to the west of the circle of trees. They are not trees. Are they stunted men, or some strange new race?"

Manwe smiled. "They came unlooked for in the song, and were always held of small reckoning with the powers of Arda, and so they have prospered. But see now, what the little people have wrought!"

And then from the clearing came a great ringing shout, and the trees quivered and bent as if a sudden gust had struck then. Then there was a pause, and from the forest came a rising sound of marching music, the sound of solemn drums with many voices singing a refrain.

_We come, we come with roll of drum: ta-runda runda runda rom!_

_We come, we come with horn and drum: ta-runda runda runda rom!_

One of the ents lifted the two halflings up and carried them, marching twoards Isengaurd, with fifty ents advancing behind him. Yavanna stared on in wonder.

"That is Fangorn! I sang of him firstmost. The ents are going to war, for I hear it in their song! Such a thing has not happened for a age of men."

Then Aule spoke. "They will surely be destroyed. The ents march in vain to Isengaurd! Such bitter irony is this, that my creations, twisted to evil, will kill the children of whom I love!"

The light was fierce and beatiful in Yavanna's eyes and she said. "I think not, for you underestimate my creations. The ents are the strongest of all the races of Ara, save only of the Miia sent from the west. They will not fall like their defenseless brothers. But they might fall to Courinir, for he is mighty in his own right. It is likely that this is the last march of the ents."

The singing stopped, and the ents stopped at last on the western mountains bordering a great cleft in the mountains, Nan Curinir, the Valley of Saruman.

Manwe watched them, and spoke.

"We shall see..."


End file.
